The present invention relates to a system for processing commercial or financial transactions and, specifically, to an automated banking system which includes central and remote units interconnected by a communication network for processing commercial or financial transactions.
Businesses and, more particularly, banks continually search for new business methods to reduce the cost of their commercial or financial services. However, banks must maintain the quality of the services which they offer and, due to competition, must constantly improve their services in order to keep present customers and attract new customers. To accomplish these objectives, banks have resorted to establishment of branch offices. By using branch offices, banks are able to make their services more convenient to present customers in outlying areas, rather than requiring them to utilize a central location. They are also able to attract new customers who seek a conveniently located bank. However, branch banking is expensive since each branch office requires substantial capital investment and operational expense. Where the expense of a branch bank is not feasible or justified, but the bank still wishes to provide services in a effort to transact more business with its present customers and/or attract new customers, banks have installed manned, or staffed, counters in supermarkets, shopping center malls and airports.
Another pressure on banks for added services stems from customers' inability to satisfy their banking needs during normal banking hours except at considerable inconvenience, such as when customers must interrupt their work to journey to the bank during normal banking hours because banking hours coincide with their working hours. Thus, customers want extended banking hours or after hours banking. Additionally, most banks are closed on Saturday and Sunday, yet a substantial share of purchases of consumer goods occurs on weekends. As a result, customers want access to the bank on weekends. Customers also wish to transact business around the clock at locations such as hospitals, hotels and bus depots, airpots, etc. Thus, customers' demand for after hours, weekend and around-the-clock banking services has increased the problem banks have in satisfying their customers.
To meet these needs banks have begun to use unmanned, automated card-actuated banking equipment. Voss et al., "Off-Line Cash Dispenser and Banking System," U.S. Pat. No. 3,845,277 discloses such an unmanned, automated card-actuated teller. The teller unit is completely self-contained, relying on data stored on the customer's card and/or stored locally in a memory at the site of the installation to limit the nature and/or amount of the transaction. Such equipment can be located at a remote location to serve as a branch office at significantly reduced capital investment and operational expense, or outside a bank building for use when the bank is closed. In either case, the customer receives the benefit of after hours, weekend and around-the-clock banking services, including cash withdrawal, fund transfer and payment and deposit transactions.
While these teller units have been extremely useful, they are not without limitations. For example, the immediate centralized accounting capability of conventional teller-assisted banking systems, which facilitates maintenance of an up-to-date running balance of each customer's account, is absent. Moreover, the teller unit must operate under limitations imposed by the types and amounts of data which are encoded on the customer's card and which can be stored locally in the teller unit memory. To increase the flexibility of the teller unit by increasing the size of the memory and/or the amount of hardware increases the cost.
An even more recent development in automated banking comprehends providing a plurality of remotely located teller machines which are each interconnected with a central unit via a communication network. These remote teller machines operate in what is termed an "on-line" mode. That is, each remotely located teller machine serves as an input/output (I/O) terminal relative to the centrally located unit. The remote teller machine transmits transaction data to the central unit. The central unit processes the transaction and generates an authorization or denial code for transmission to the remote teller machine. Prior to transmitting the code, the central unit ascertains the condition of the remote teller machine to receive the code. If the remote teller machine responds that it is in condition to receive the code, the central unit transmits the code to the remote teller machine. The remote teller machine executes the transaction in accordance with the code and thereafter transmits transaction completion data to the central unit. The central unit then accounts for the transaction. This "on-line" seqence is followed for each and every transaction by each and every customer.
The foregoing "on-line" equipment, wherein the remote teller machines are linked with, and controlled by, a central unit are to be distinguished from the previously described teller units which are self-contained, i.e., not linked with or controlled by a central unit. Such previously described completely self-contained teller units are often termed "off-line" teller machines.
One objective of the present invention is to provide an alternative to branch banking by providing teller units in remote areas at significantly reduced capital investment and operational expense. Another objective is to provide teller units for the transaction of banking business after normal bank hours, on weekends and around-the-clock.
It is also an objective of the present invention to provide a remote unit which is operable in both an "off-line" mode and an "on-line" mode; that is, a remote unit which is operable to process transactions either with or without communication with a central unit, depending on the availability of the central unit, which is often needed by the bank for other purposes and unavailable to assist in remote unit transactions.
Another objective of the present invention is to provide a remote unit which, in the "on-line" mode, does not depend on an authorization or denial code from the central unit but instead operates to economize central unit processing time and communication time with the central unit by processing one or more customer transactions following a single data transmission from the central unit.
The present invention also has as an objective the recording of all transaction data at the remote unit, when operating in either the "on-line" mode or the "off-line" mode, and the communication of all transaction data to the central unit for centralized accounting purposes either immediately after the customer completes his transactions when in the "on-line" mode or after the system becomes operable in the "on-line" mode if the transaction is one which occurred when the system was in the "off-line" mode.
The present invention also has an objective the provision of improved line security for the protection of system integrity. However, if for some reason in the "on-line" mode line security should not exist, the system will change its status from the "on-line" mode to the "off-line" mode. Thus, the customer is given the opportunity to perform transactions "off-line" in the event unavoidable circumstances, such as faulty "on-line" data communication, would inhibit the customer from conducting transactions "on-line."